4*
This is a fake dating romance featuring Dean, a lawyer who has his whole life planned, including a strategic marriage of convenience, and Solange, an educator/social worker who crashes Dean’s wedding to keep him and his intended from marrying for all the wrong reasons. When Dean realizes that having a girlfriend would make him more competitive at a shot of becoming partner, he asks Solange to enter into a fake relationship, which she’s on board with since she’s in need of a fake boyfriend as well thanks to her mother’s lie to save face with her annoying cousin. Talk about a relationship of convenience!
Thus ensues a steamy romance with all of the predictable tropes, including having to share a bed, finding their chemistry is off the charts when they have to act like they’re in love by sharing public displays of affection, and more. Of course, they’ve both made it clear from the start that they’re not interested in love and commitment, and it’s baggage from being raised by single moms at the root. Although there’s nothing particularly unique or memorable in this version of the fake dating trope, Solange’s family dynamics, especially between her Brazilian mother and two aunts, make for an amusing journey. It’s also fun to catch up with Max and Lina from The Worst Best Man. (Solange and Lina are cousins and more like sisters.)
If you’re looking for a fun, easy read that’s light on the angst and rife with sexual tension, pick this one up.
I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Avon through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.
4*
Cleo Wilder, a newspaper columnist who has spent the past few years reporting on a series of failed dates, is sent to a remote Irish island prior to her 30th birthday to marry herself in a self-coupling ceremony. However, instead of the idyllic luxury cabin that’s been reserved for her voyage of self-discovery, she’s been double-booked with Mack Sullivan, a gruff American photographer with a striking resemblance to Han Solo. He’s there to discover and document his roots while also giving himself and his estranged wife some distance because it is painful for him not to be under the same roof as his sons whom he deeply loves.
Although the first impression of Cleo is selfish and whiney, in time it becomes clear that her fear of her impending birthday and need for Salvation Island’s isolation have deeper significance, making the standoff between her and Mack more balanced. As they spend time together, initially on opposite sides of their chalk line boundary, they share three things about themselves each night and slowly come to appreciate and grow comfortable with each other.
It’s clear early on that this isn’t a typical romance since Mack is married and still at least a little in love with his wife. The moral ambiguity will undoubtedly elicit a range of reactions from readers, but the language Silver instills in her characters is poetic, heartfelt, and enchanting. It is refreshing to witness a couple handle their emotions and actions with maturity and consideration for others (although I guarantee debate on this opinion).
Like any good work of women’s fiction, the female friendships are front and center in the island’s knitting group and the men are equally welcoming and supportive. As Mack says in his speech at his exhibition, the Salvation Island inhabitants could have been very clannish and suspicious but, instead, were very welcoming unique characters who provided warmth on this beautiful, but cold, harsh island.
As for the self-coupling ceremony that seemed very self-indulgent on the surface, it actually proved to be a lovely expression of self-love and a celebration of the next chapter of Cleo’s life. After almost two months, she gains the clarity to realize that the noisy, frenetic pace and superficiality of relationships in London are no longer sustaining her and that her dream of writing a novel can come true with the island and her newfound friends as her muses.
In the spirit of the book’s “three things,” here are mine:
One, the colorful cast of characters who inhabit Salvation Island
Two, the emotional parting between Cleo and Mack and their need to stay connected via text by continuing their “three things” conversations, and
Three, Silver’s poetic descriptions of the rugged beauty of this wild Irish island
…and Four (even if Mack doesn’t like them), a wish for an extended epilogue several years later. You’ll understand why after you finish the book!
I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Ballantine Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.
Where do I begin to explain how much I love this book? Is it in the colorful, quirky neighborhood of Primrose Hill in London, the city of my heart? As a passionate reader, is it in The Book Garden, a charming bookstore owned by Eloise and inherited by her daughter Valentina? Perhaps it’s in the dual timelines from Eloise’s and Valentina’s points of view, Eloise’s starting in 1968 when she meets two men, one the love of her life and the other who is responsible for both her greatest joy and the incomprehensible cruelty behind her unbearable pain, and Valentina’s in 2013 when, at age 35, she’s facing divorce and the news that her mother has died, the same mother she hasn’t seen or heard from in 23 years. Ultimately, it is in the colors of the rich tapestry Jio has created with her stellar ability to weave together the multiple threads of love: romantic, maternal, obsessive, platonic, eternal, unrequited, and bibliophilic.
Although, at times, it’s heartbreaking to read about Eloise’s lonely life in Los Angeles under the thumb of her controlling husband Frank, Jio’s choice of the split timelines enables readers to see the parallels between hers and Valentina’s lives: the seemingly insignificant use of scavenger hunts which actually bring the story full circle, the chance encounters at the Royal Automotive Club where men come to their rescue in different but life-altering ways, and, most importantly, the books that provide solace to both Eloise and Valentina. Eloise often spoke of the lifespan of books, meaning the number of people who would read them, and it’s in the rediscovery of these shared stories through Eloise’s final scavenger hunt that Valentina learns the truth about the mother who touched so many people’s hearts and, from handwritten notes in the book she and her mother both loved the most, that she finds a new love of her own. Recommend to fans of Susan Meissner, Tracy Garvis Graves, Kristin Harmel and anyone who enjoys dual timeline novels.
I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Ballantine Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.
Following a desperate and damaging attempt to run from what she calls a “trifecta” of heartbreak, Lila Reyes has been exiled by her Cuban-American parents from her beloved Miami to her aunt’s B&B in Winchester, England in the hopes that she will find peace and healing. In her opinion, this is just one more act of betrayal, removing control of how she handles her grieving process after the death of her beloved Abuela, the breakup with her long-time boyfriend, and the abandonment of her best friend. Her plan had been to take over the family bakery with her sister, with Pilar handling the business end and Lila honoring her grandmother’s legacy, using both her recipes and the lessons she taught her. How can she possibly do that if she has to spend the summer an ocean away?
On the surface, Winchester and Miami are polar opposites. One is ancient, gray, chilly, lacking in flavor, understated. The other is modern, full of color, sizzling, spicy, bold. Lila’s initial assumption is that the people reflect their cities…this will feel like a prison sentence. So, after 48 hours of solitude, her first surprise is finding that the loud rock music emanating from her cousin Gordon’s room is the creative inspiration for his beautiful architectural drawings. Then she meets Orion Maxwell, the son of the local tea purveyor, his sister Flora, the talented singer-songwriter Jules, and her boyfriend Remy. Orion, who makes it his mission to find Lila’s favorite flavor of tea, offers to be her Winchester tour guide. Through various adventures over the course of the book, the five friends collectively show her that there are so many flavors to food and drink, styles of music, dance, and architecture, landscape views, and even types of heartbreak, grief, and love beyond the small world she has inhabited her whole life, that she slowly comes to love her temporary home.
Although Orion and Lila are both dealing with weighty issues, their shared grief creates a special bond between them that will make it difficult to let go at the end of the summer. Will there be any way for them to keep the relationship alive when they’re worlds apart?
This aptly-titled book is a culinary guide to Cuban cuisine, a travel guide of Winchester, and an emotional journey both on foot and via many modes of transportation through grief, loss, and hope. The descriptions of the food are mouth-watering and central to the story, both as a tribute to Lila’s Abuela and as a plot point when Lila takes over the B&B kitchen in the absence of their regular pastry chef. The city of Winchester and the surrounding countryside, which Lila and Orion discover on their runs and the back of his motorcycle, are another character in the story and like the humans, are well-drawn and another reason that Lila comes to love her place of exile. Although there are heavy topics such as mental illness and death, they are handled delicately. In the talented hands of Laura Taylor Namey, this is another extraordinary young adult novel to share with teens who are looking for a deeply-emotional, thought-provoking story that will leave them wanting more. Highly recommended!
